February 10, 2009
William D. Brewer
William Dodd Brewer, 1922-2009 Ambassador William D. Brewer died after a brief illness on February 10, 2009 in Hingham, Massachusetts. He was born in Middletown, Connecticut on April 4, 1922 and after attending the Taft School in Watertown, CT he graduated from Williams College, Williamstown, MA in 1943 (Class of ‘44). After college, he served in the Office of War Information in Washington, D.C. and then in the American Field Service, C Platoon, 485th Company, attached to the British 8th Army, seeing action at the Rapido River and Monte Cassino in Italy and also serving in Austria and India before mustering out in 1945. Mr. Brewer attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, graduating in 1946 and, after teaching briefly at Williams College and Bowdoin College, he joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1947. He served in Beirut, Lebanon, where he met his wife, Alice Van Ess, whom he married in 1949 in Basra, Iraq. He also served in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, in Damascus, Syria, in Kuwait, and in Kabul, Afghanistan. Mr. Brewer was appointed Ambassador to Mauritius from 1970 to 1973 and then served as Ambassador to the Sudan from 1973 to 1977. After retiring from the Foreign Service in 1978, Mr. Brewer was appointed the Stuart Chevalier Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College in Pasadena, California, where he taught and also chaired the Department of World Affairs until 1986. After retiring from teaching, Mr. Brewer and his wife moved to Falmouth, Massachusetts, where they enjoyed a very active retirement until relocating to Hingham, Massachusetts in 2005. Mr. Brewer is survived by his sister, Joan Brewer of Brunswick, Maine, his son, John V.E. Brewer of Short Hills, New Jersey, his son, Daniel A. Brewer of Hull, Massachusetts, by five devoted grandchildren and by a loving extended family. A memorial service will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Hingham on Saturday, February 21 at 5:00 p.m. Memorial gifts in lieu of flowers may be made to St. John’s Church, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Falmouth, MA, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, or the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund, P.O. Box 7058 Merrifield,VA 22116-7058 or http://www.er-d.org.